Chicago officially got a little more than 19 inches of snow, but other parts reportedly got hit by 22 inches.

The Super Bowl blizzard may have officially checked in at 19.3 inches, but the hardest-hit area was actually a little to the north in Lincolnshire.

A total of 22 inches was reported in the Lake County town from the storm, the fifth-worst to ever hit the Chicago area.

Close behind was Oak Lawn, 40 miles to the south. It logged 21.5 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Elmhurst marked 20.8 inches, Rogers Park in Chicago, 20, and Lincolnwood, 19.7 inches.

The town that fared the best in the immediate Chicago area was Mundelein, with just 9.7 inches. The lowest amount was logged by the town of Chatsworth in Livingston County, about 100 miles south of Chicago: 3.5 inches.

The city of Chicago got some of the heaviest totals, with 19.2 inches recorded at Midway Airport and 19.3 at O'Hare International Airport, the city's official recording station.

Although there was more than a foot of snow on the ground outside her house in Englewood, Chiquita Lewis wasn't pleased with the closing of public schools. She said she had to rearrange her schedule to stay home with her 5- and 8-year-olds and, most important, they missed a day of learning, she said.

The year's first major winter storm during Super Bowl weekend brought heavy snow and strong winds to the Chicago area. Winter keeps rolling with snow and frigid air making repeat visits.

"When I was younger, I remember walking to school through this mess," she said. "It's not freezing temperatures. It's just snow. I think they've gotten a little too loose with canceling school."

Lewis, 28, said she learned school was canceled from an email, but she had a feeling it was coming long before the snow and wind became brutal.

On Monday she cooked and fed her children breakfast and then tried to find activities to keep them busy. After spending the weekend in the house, Lewis said, her children were looking forward to getting out.

"The Park District is open. The public library is open. So the schools should be open," she said. "I just think kids should be in school and not at home or outside playing."

In the Avondale neighborhood on Chicago's Northwest Side, Tom Swanson shouted as his shovel crunched into a pile of snow along Kedzie Avenue:

“It’s like the ‘Kedzie Social!’”

Neighborhood residents lent shovels and muscle to each other Monday afternoon to help dig out after the blizzard.

Charlie Johnson, Chicago Tribune

Nick Martin, 24, uses a bucket to remove the snow from around his car in the 2800 block of North Kedzie Avenue in Chicago on Feb. 2, 2015.

Nick Martin, 24, uses a bucket to remove the snow from around his car in the 2800 block of North Kedzie Avenue in Chicago on Feb. 2, 2015. (Charlie Johnson, Chicago Tribune)

Swanson, an upstairs neighbor of Jessica Bourque and Nick Martin, had been digging out his own car nearby and jumped in to help excavate the couple’s red Honda coupe.

At first, armed only with a mesh waste basket and a broom, the couple looked over matched for the pile of snow that fenced in their car. They had called area stores like Target and Home Depot, but were told there were no shovels to be had.

“Chicago is out of shovels. We resorted to buckets,” said Bourque, 24. “We looked up a few hacks online and one of them was garbage cans.”

That’s when 9-year-old Jacob Cosme stepped in. He saw the couple from his upstairs window struggling with their waste basket and asked his grandmother if he could lend them their shovels.

"I just felt bad because they only had the bucket so I asked my grandmother if I could give them a shovel and she said 'yes.'"

“He saw they just had a bucket so he offered our shovels,” said his mom Vanessa Cosme. “He said, ‘I promise I’ll watch them and I’ll make sure they bring them back.’”

Equipped with borrowed shovels, brooms and buckets, Swanson, Bourque and Martin, along with Larry Thompson, an unemployed man who offered to help for five dollars, the group cleared the car scoop by scoop.

The Cosmes came back part way through to reclaim one of their shovels so they could themselves dig out a parking space for their Pontiac across the street.

They finished in about 30 minutes - though Martin thinks it would have taken the better part of three hours with only a bucket.

Bourque circled the block to run the car’s battery while Thompson and Martin held down the cleared patch of asphalt.

There was debate over whether or not “dibs” could be called on the spot, but Bourque felt a parking spot along a well-traveled street with businesses like Kedzie probably wasn’t fair.

A side street, sure, but if they drove their car tomorrow, they would likely leave their work unclaimed.

Up north, the Chicago Botanic Garden managed to stay open too. The 385-acre park aims to stay open year-round.

Cindy Baker, manager of horticulture services, received the call at 4:30 a.m. Sunday to prepare for the blizzard and bring in as many staff members as possible.

The workers open the critical areas first, where people arrive from cars and buildings. But "yesterday was pretty rough," she said. "It was really hard to keep up."

The park closed at 1 p.m. and reopened Monday at 10 a.m.

"We don't salt the roads, so we don't get that black snow," Baker said. "It's stunning. It's just beautiful to walk around."

In the parking lots, workers push the snow into lesser-used lots, then spread out the drifts over time so they melt more quickly, she said.

Within the park, the workers carefully blow paths of snow to each side, and gently brush off newly fallen snow that has collected on evergreen limbs. Once the snow has frozen on the limbs, "you don't want to touch the plant," Baker said. "They actually do more damage trying to get snow off the plant."

After completely removing snow from walking paths, workers lay down a combination of an ice melting product and angular sand, meaning the edges are rough and provide a more gritty texture.

"We make sure it is something that has very, very low levels of sodium chloride," Baker said. "We don't like salt on our plants. It causes a lot of damage."

Across the Chicago area, officials generally praised their public works crews for the job they did getting rid of tons of snow Sunday and Monday.

"Certainly our hats are off to all the state, county and municipal plow operators," said Kent McKenzie, emergency management coordinator for Lake County.

"Most people stayed in and stayed off the roads to watch the Super Bowl, which was good because it allowed the plows out to clear the roads," McKenzie said. "There were a handful of cars in ditches, but not any more than you would expect on a typical Sunday."

"The road crews did a heck of a job," added McHenry County Emergency Management Agency Director David Christensen, who said he had no problem on his morning commute to McHenry County from Lake County. "They (the roads) are all passable. Of the five cars I did see in the ditch, all of them were SUVs. Humor aside, it looks like we came through pretty good."

The McHenry County Sheriff's Office brought in extra staff, preparing for the worst, but "it wasn't as crazy as it could have been," Christensen said. "There was a luck factor, that it happened on Sunday. If you didn't have to go anywhere, if you didn't have to work ..."

Highland Park City Manager Ghida Neukirch said main roads and Metra parking lots were mostly clear of snow by early morning. "These guys have been working around the clock," she said.

Officials in Wilmette, Winnetka and Glencoe said Monday morning that they had not experienced any serious problems or road accidents attributed to the heavy snowfall.

Deerfield police Cmdr. Brian Budny said police responded to 31 calls for motorists needing assistance, but there were no crashes with significant injuries. Budny also credited the public works crews.